Custom Design Question

[oracle]

I'm using a custom design imported from Dreamweaver and have uploaded the site to the trial server.

Images: Do I need to copy the images that belong to my custom page design from the Dreamweaver folder into an Actinic folder, eg Site HTML?

Cart and Checkout Buttons: How do I insert 'View Cart' and 'Checkout' buttons into my design and can I use my own buttons?

Page Titles: The individual page titles for product sections are not displaying - I'm just seeing the custom design page title. I have added some titles to the pages from within Section Details. When I look at the source code for each page I can't see variables for inserting page titles or meta tag info, although I have seen it previously when I was experimenting with a different design. Do I need to insert some variables to make this work or is it more likely that I have made a mistake whilst importing the design into Actinic?

Instructions: How much of the v8 instruction manual or the v8 design course will cover topics like this that relate to creating custom designs in Dreamweaver?

Release Date: Someone from Actinic told me last week that v8 might be released today. How imminent is the release date?

Sorry for so many questions but thought it might be best to ask a load in one go.

Thanks, Rob.

[oracle]

Update: I think I have now sorted the Page Title issue (Insert Actinic Content/Page Title) surprisingly enough! Didn't expect it to be that logical

[pinbrook]

I'll answer some of the Qs

Do I need to copy the images that belong to my custom page design from the Dreamweaver folder into an Actinic folder, eg Site HTML?

I haven't had to be this, although you do need to place imagenames referenced in css inside single quotes

Cart and Checkout Buttons: How do I insert 'View Cart' and 'Checkout' buttons into my design and can I use my own buttons?

I have created my own buttons and saved them as the same name as the originals, then added <Actinic:Variable Name="NavigationIcon" Value="Checkout Image Navigation Button"/> and <Actinic:Variable Name="NavigationIcon" Value="View Cart Image Navigation Button"/> to my design in DW.

Better described as Insert Actinic content, navigation icons, use fixed layout, choose the relevant button type

How much of the v8 instruction manual or the v8 design course will cover topics like this that relate to creating custom designs in Dreamweaver?

Very little, see http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=22459 post 7 for a brief run down of the process.

The beauty of the course was that it put alot of things into place, therefore the totality of the new stuff didn't seem so daunting/challenging/threatening. Delete as appropriate.

[oracle]

Hi Jo,

How do you know which file name to use for which button (when saving custom button image)? There are several view cart buttons within Site1 for example.

Rob

[pinbrook]

Nothing special , i just viewed the folder using thumbnails and picked out the most likely candidates.

button_checkout
button_checkout_hightlight
button_viewcart
button_viewcart_hightlight

[oracle]

Hi Jo,

You're a diamond, thanks! Having remembered to link to the actiniccore.js file it now works beautifully.

Thanks again.

Rob

[oracle]

What I am finding when I upload to the trial server is that the home page and shop pages look fine but the view basket, contact and checkout pages have lost all the graphics from the page design and all the css formatting.

When I upload the site I get this warning:

Warning: The HTML templates specify source files (with "SRC=" commands) that reside in directories other than the acatalog directory on the web site. Actinic can not handle these files and they are being omitted from the list of files to upload.

No source files in the templates should have a path. Store them in the site specific directory locally, and they will be uploaded to the Actinic web directory.

I tried copying the image files into the Site1 folder but still got the same message.

When I preview the site in the browser without uploading to the trial server and try to view the 'view basket', 'checkout' or 'contact us' pages it says:

The link you selected would normally run a CGI script.

This facility is not available in preview mode.

I don't understand why the home page and shop pages are finding the images but the other pages aren't.

Am I missing something?

[cdicken]

This is normally because there is no 'Base HREF' tag within the <head> section of your site pages. This is what helps the scripts in the cgi-bin to find all the images and CSS.

Could you look within the overall page layout in Actinic and see if there is a purple line that says 'BaseHREF' in line 6. Better still, give us a URL to look at ourselves to see the problem.

[oracle]

Hi Chris,

Yes, you are right there is no BaseHREF tag.

I think the problem is stemming from the fact that I have started entirely from scratch with a custom design, rather than starting with an Actinic template and modifying it. Consequently all sorts of code may well be missing.

What would you say is the cleanest design I can use from the 'Import A Page Design From Actinic' option within Dreamweaver? Perhaps I can use that as a starting point and copy the relevant code into my own design.

Thanks

Rob

[cdicken]

The best thing to do would be to create a totally clean custom design, then go to 'Actinic | Register a Design With Actinic'. Then you can insert Actinic content into the Design via the 'Actinic | Insert Actinic Content' menu - the most important one is 'INNERLAYOUT' - which will insert the products and sections into the page.

[oracle]

That's exactly what I have been doing and has led me to the point of having the BaseHREF tag missing. Presumably I can just copy that from another design?

Are there other bits of code that are likely to be missing?

[cdicken]

That's exactly what I have been doing and has led me to the point of having the BaseHREF tag missing. Presumably I can just copy that from another design?

Are there other bits of code that are likely to be missing?

Registering the Design with Actinic should copy in lots of content into the <head> section of your designs in Dreamweaver - including the <Base HREF> tag. Could I ask you to copy and paste the content of your <head> section into this thread so I can see what's happening. If it's really long - put it in a text file.

[oracle]

Hi Chris,

When I first imported a design into Actinic there was all sorts of code there but now there is no Actinic code at all. As I am still fairly new to Actinic it may have been user error

What I will do is import the design afresh and come back to you. I appreciate all the help I am getting from the forum but I don't want anyone to spend their time on something if it's obvious that I have made the mistake. I'll try again and let you know what happens.

Thanks

Rob

[oracle]

OK, I started again with a new design and all seems to be working now, although I still get that same error message when uploading:

Warning: The HTML templates specify source files (with "SRC=" commands) that reside in directories other than the acatalog directory on the web site. Actinic can not handle these files and they are being omitted from the list of files to upload.

No source files in the templates should have a path. Store them in the site specific directory locally, and they will be uploaded to the Actinic web directory.

As the pages are all displaying properly I'm not too concerned about it.

I am now struggling with something else though I'm trying to put a Best Sellers List in the right hand column of my design. I have managed to get it to display a list instead of full product details with images etc, but it keeps stretching the column or the table I put it in.

In Site Options/Layout I am using the following settings for the four layout options:

Standard Best Seller Item
Sidebar Best Sellers List
Full Best Sellers List
Sidebar Only

I have tried as many different combinations as I can think of but with no success.

Any suggestions?

[pinbrook]

You need "BestSellerListSidebar" to display a simple list